Snow Patrol reach one billion streams on Spotify for hit 'Chasing Cars'

Snow Patrol’s 2006 track 'Chasing Cars' has achieved over 1,000,200 plays on Spotify, making it the most streamed song from any Northern Irish musical act on the online platform.

There are currently 322 songs that have hit the music milestone and Snow Patrol join major names such as AC/DC, Ed Sheeran and Fleetwood Mac on the 'Billions Club' playlist.

'Chasing Cars', an addictively plaintive ballad which almost everyone of a certain age in Northern Ireland could sing along to with joyful ease, was released as the second single from the Bangor band’s fourth studio album, Eyes Open, in 2006.

In 2009, UK music licensing body PPL announced that ‘Chasing Cars’ was the most widely played song of the decade in the UK and ten years later, it was revealed as the most-played song of the 21st century on UK radio.

This is a landmark achievement for one of Northern Ireland’s most successful indie rock outfits, made up of frontman Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly, Paul Wilson, Jonny Quinn, and Johnny McDaid.

Lead singer Gary Lightbody reportedly wrote the song when he became sober after a binge of white wine, in the garden of music producer Jacknife Lee's Kent cottage.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Bangor man said: "It's the purest love song that I've ever written. There's no knife-in-the-back twist. When I read these lyrics back, I was like, 'Oh, that's weird.' All the other love songs I've written have a dark edge."

The phrase 'Chasing Cars' came from Lightbody's father, in reference to a girl Lightbody was infatuated with: "You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and you just wouldn't know what to do with it if you did," he had told his son.

In August, Lightbody returned to his home city to perform a special concert to mark being awarded the freedom of the borough from the Ards and North Down Borough Council.

Final Straw was the band’s debut major-label album, released in 2002, and the following year, ‘Run’, the album's biggest hit, radpidly saw the band rise to national fame.

The album was certified five times platinum in the UK. Eyes Open (2006), with its hit single, ‘Chasing Cars’ topped the UK Albums Chart and was the best-selling British album of the year.

In 2008, Snow Patrol released their fifth studio album, A Hundred Million Suns; then, in 2009, they released their first compilation album, Up to Now; and, in 2011, their sixth studio album, Fallen Empires, was published. The band released seventh album, Wildness, on 25 May 2018.

During the course of their career, Snow Patrol have won seven Meteor Ireland Music Awards and been nominated for six Brit Awards and one Grammy.

Final Straw, Eyes Open, and A Hundred Million Suns have sold ten million copies worldwide, combined.

‘Chasing Cars’ pushed its way onto the download and pop charts after it was heard during an emotional scene of the second-season finale of the popular television show Grey's Anatomy on 15 May 2006.

On 23 July 2006, ‘Chasing Cars’ had the distinction of being the last song performed live on the BBC's Top of the Pops.